Chaparral has toppled three out-of-state teams and Mountain Vista (last week’s No. 5 team) in recent weeks. In the process, junior third baseman/pitcher Max Kuhns has developed into an emerging star — which is interesting, considering the way his season started.

Neil Devlin, originally from the Philadelphia area, has covered high school sports in Colorado for more than 30 years, writing about the people, athletes and events that encompass the Rocky Mountain prep sports world.